Method of producing interchangeable letter or figure disks.



Patented N0v.f |3, |900.

J. .HQ Bln-LEY. Y METHOD 0F PRDUCTNG INTERCHANGEABLE LETTER 0B FIGURE DISKS.

(Application le'd Mar. 14, 1900.) 4

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN H. RIDLEY, OF NEW YORK, N.

METHOD 0F PRODUCING INTERCHANGEABLE LETTER 0R FIGURE DISKS.

SPECIFICATION forming' part of Letters Patent No. 661,770. dated November 13, 1900.

Application filed March 14. 1900- To (L7/Z whom 7125 may concern;

Be it known that I, JOHN H. RIDLELacitizen of the United States, residing at the borough of Manhattan, in the city, county, and State of New York, have invented an Improvementin the Method ofProducing Interchangeable Letter or Figure Disks, of Which the vfollowing is a specification. i

My invention relates generally to bank-note engraving and printing. Heretofore in this art letters and designs have been engraved upon av plate, the platebeing soft. The plate thereafter has been hardened and a soft roller employed to take up from the engraved plate the letters, designs, or other characters in relief. The roller has then been hardened, so that the letters, designs, or characters thereon can be thereafter rolled into any nu mber of platesarranged or groupe'd for printing. The original plate is saved and another roller can at any time be made from the origi-` nal plate should the first roller become damaged. These original plates are never printed from, but only used t'or making rollers for transferring to other plates. In this art it has been necessary to engrave a plate for each note, check, or other article to be printed, the various letters, figures, names, or designs all being upon the original plate, and where the same design is to be employed with other names and figures it has usually been necessary to engrave an additional plate; and the object of my invention is to overcome these difficulties, it being only essential that the design should be engraved on the original plate.

My invention applies particularly to alphabets andfigures of various designs, and the object sought is to be able to group the letters of the alphabet or the figures in any desired order, so as to impress upon the plate or plates to be printed the name or number required.

In carrying out my invention I engrave a suitable plate With any one or more of the letters of the alphabet or figures. These are engraved in the plate when the same is in a soft condition before hardening. The letters are preferably engraved backward and they are spaced apart, and I prefer to engrave parallel lines at opposite sides of the row of letters or figures, Which lines afterward become guides. I then harden the plate and preserve the same forfutureuse. Aroll of soft met-al is thereafter employed in connection with the plate to take off from the plate the letters and the lilies in relief. 'lhis roll is hollow, and after the letters or figures and the lines have been produced on the surface thereof in p relief from the original engraved plate agroov'e is cnt on the opposite side of the roll and the rollis put into a lathe and out up intosections or disks, which disks are somewhat thicker than desired for the finished disks. These disks are then ground down to the required thickness and they are hardened in any way well known in the art. Disks may thus be made comprising entire alphabets of various designs with any desired number of each letter of the alphabet, and figures` may be treated in the same Way, the disks being kept in stock. These disks are afterward associated or grouped according to the name to be einployed or the number desired and they are arranged upon a mandrel and clamped thereto and the name desired, such as the name of an individual or the naine of a bank, can be made u p of these disks and be rolled into the soft metal of a plate afterward employed to print from. Iu'lhis Way the design of a check or of a bank-note can be taken on a vroll from an original plate and rolled into a printing-plate, and the name of au individual can he made up and rolled across the corner of the check and the name of the bank made up and rolled into the panel usually provided in the design of the check. The plate then prepared is entire and ready to be printed from, and formaking check-books any number of these printing-plates can be made from the rolls thus prepared.

In the drawings, Figurel is a plan View of.

IOO

The letters orgures engraved on the plate may be in rotation or in like groups, and after engraving the plate is hardened.

The hollow roll b, of soft metal, is rolled upon the hard plate a and the letters and lines thereon are taken up onto the surface of the roll in relief, after which the groove b is produced in the surface of the roll longitudinally of the roll. This roll b is thereafter cut u p into disks or sections upon the imaginary lines c in a lathe or suitable tool, the letters of the plate and the corresponding letters of the roll being spaced apart, so as to give room for the cutting up of the roll into disks, the lines 2 3 of the plate producing the ribs of the roll,and`consequently the ribs of the disks, the said ribs forming guides to insure the alining of the letters of the disks. This is further insured by the groove b', which is made to receive a -bar f, and to which disks in a finished condition the bar f is secured, preferably by a screw. (Shown in Fig. 4.)

When the roll b is cut up into disks orsec-` tions, they are too thick to be adapted for grouping, and theyarethereforegrounddown tothe desired thickness, so as to bring/the yletters approximately close together, kand the f disks are then hardened and thereafter form yanstock from which various let-ters or figures drel onwhich the saine are grouped in the forming of a word or number,`the said figures being in relief 'and the ribs aliniug upon the disks.

As associated the various letter-disks upon the `mandrel form a roll, so that the letters can be rolled into the surface of a plate tobe' printed from, and these lettered or numbered disks can be grouped from the stock according to the requirements of the case, and after use are to be put back in stock similar to type and into spaces provided for 'the respective letters or figures.

, I claim as myinvention- 1. The method herein specified of producinginterchangeable letter or figure disks, consisting in engraving a plate with the letters or figures spaced apart, hardening the said plate, taking off in relief the letters or figures from the plate upon a hollow roll, cutting up the hollow roll into disks or sections and hardening the saine so that the disks may thereafter be associated for thename and number desired, substantially in the manner and for the purposes set forth 2. The method herein specified of producing interchangeable letter or figure disks, consisting iu engraving a plate with the letters or figures spaced apart, hardening the said plate, taking off from the plate the letters or figures in relief upon a hollow soft-metal roll, .longitudinally grooving the said roll at a point distant from the letters or figures, cutting up the said roll between the letters or figures into disks or sections, grinding down the said disks to the required thickness and thereafter hardening the same, the .disks being thereafter adapted to be associated for names or numbers, substantially in the manner and for the purposes set forth.

3. The method hereinfspecified of producing interchangeable letter or figure disks, consisting inl engraving a plate withthe letters or iigures spaced apart and with lines parallel to one another and at opposite sides of the row ofv letters or figures, hardening the said plate, taking off from the said plate upon a hollow roll of soft metal the said letters or figures and theparallel lines, grooving the said hollow roll longitudinally upon the opposite side from 'that having the letters Ortigures in relief, cutting up the said hollow roll between the Said lettersor gures into disks vor sections, grinding the surfaces of said disks JOHN H. RIDLEY.'

Witnesses:

GEO. T. PINCKNEY, BERTHA M. ALLEN. 

